This application claims priority of Japanese patent Application No. 2001-9924, filed on Jan. 18, 2001.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an instruction input device for an electronic musical instrument and particularly to a instruction input device for an electronic musical instrument capable of inputting two or more instructions to be processed in different manners with a single or common operation panel which has input points arranged in rows and columns or in a matrix.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various instruction input devices known as a touch panel, a touch screen, and an analog tablet (thus referred to as a touch panel hereinafter). With an electronic musical instrument, such a touch panel is generally utilized as a means for providing settings such as parameters to be used for playing. The touch panel is arranged in which the contact point of a stylus pen or the finger on its input screen is detected from a resistance of a resistor circuit provided beneath the screen and energized with a voltage. Accordingly, operations as signed to the location on the panel are carried out in accordance with the location of the contact point which are detected. Other types of the touch panel than the resistance type including a static capacitance type for detecting the static capacitance at the contact point and a pressure sensitive type for detecting the pressure at the contact point on the screen are known. With an electronic musical instrument, the touch panel is preferably used for selection of the tones and setting of the parameters for various effects. Instructions for selection of the tones and setting of the parameters are arbitrarily inputted by directing the screen of the touch panel in which those instructions are assigned.
Although a group of the instructions are assigned to the screen of the touch panel for ease of implementing their corresponding actions, their arrangement has the following drawbacks to be overcome. An electronic musical instrument can be controlled by instant touch input action for touching at once a target instruction on the screen, such as selection of the tone, and continuous press input action for maintain pressing a target instruction for predetermined period on the screen until a desired value is set, such as setting of the sound level. The two different input actions are hardly implemented on one screen of a conventional touch panel. It is hence proposed that the instant touch input action and the continuous press input action are conducted separately on common screen as switched from one to the other or that the touch panel is accompanied with a separate input device (i.e. a keyboard). However, when two different input means are operated in a combination, operation may become be complicated and it will be unfavorable for a higher level of the play with its parameters modified frequently during the operation.
An input device is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication (Heisei)7-334295 where a pattern of areas are assigned to the touch panel for providing their corresponding instructions and when any of the areas is depressed by the finger a predetermined number of times or for a predetermined length of time without single or instant action, its instructed action can be carried out. However, the input device fails to teach the different input actions performed on a single screen.
It is hence an object of the present invention to provide an instruction input device arranged capable of inputting instructions on a single screen while identifying two different mode inputs, instant touch input and continuous press input.
As a first feature of this invention, an instruction input device for an electronic musical instrument arranged capable of sensing the physical contact on a screen image to acknowledge the demand of actions for generating sounds, wherein the screen is divided into plural areas and each area is designated for either a continuous press input for continuously accepting the demand while the contact remains held or an instant touch input for receiving the demand once whenever the contact is made.
As a second feature of this invention, the input device further comprising an area attribute storage means for storing a data assigned to each of the different display image and indicating which area in the display image is either a continuous press input area or an instant touch input area.
As a third feature of this invention, the input device further comprising a detecting means for detecting the contact point on the display image, an area identifying means for examining from a data output of the area attribute storage means whether the contact point detected by the detecting means is in the continuous press input area or the instant touch input area, an input mode storage means for storing an attribute of the area identified by the determining action of the area identifying means, and a parameter setting means for determining settings of the parameters for generation of sounds according to the attribute of the area stored and received from the input mode storage means.
As a fourth feature of this invention, the continuous press input area includes a movement instruction detecting region for recognizing the movement of the contact point and further comprising a means for calculating the coordinates of the contact point which is shifted from one location to another.
The above described feature of the present invention allows each instruction to be entered in one of the different modes assigned to each of the areas of the screen. Accordingly, a more number of instructions can be entered in the different modes from a single screen display. For example, the sound level can be controlled by continuously changing its setting value through continuously pressing its assigned area while any switch part is turned on and off by instantly touching its assigned area on the same screen display.
Particularly, the fourth feature of the present invention allows the movement of the contact point to be detected in the movement instruction detecting region of an area assigned for the continuous press input and expressed in the coordinates on the screen. As a result, any target item expressed by the coordinates can be pointed and moved by the finger touching directly on the screen display.